The 1990's decade has been marked by a societal technological revolution driven by the convergence of the data processing industry with the consumer electronics industry. This advance has been even further accelerated by the extensive consumer and business involvement in the internet over the past two years. As a result of these changes, it seems as if virtually all aspects of human endeavor in the industrialized world requires human-computer interfaces. As a result of these profound changes, there is a need to make computer directed activities accessible to a substantial portion of the world's population which, up to a year or two ago, was computer-illiterate, or at best computer indifferent. In order for the vast computer supported marketplaces to continue and to be commercially productive, it will be necessary for a large segment of computer indifferent consumers to be involved in computer interfaces. One approach which has been advanced involves creating interfaces to computers which are as close to the real world as possible.
One major market for user friendly computer controlled display interfaces has been in the selection and delivery of a variety of electronic media presentations in the multimedia marketplace. In the media presentation product fields, it is very important to provide viewers or users with on-screen controls which resemble real world controls as closely as possible. In order to make such realistic on-screen controls, it has been conventional to use raster graphics which provides high resolution images used to form the display objects representing the controls. With raster graphics, the display objects may be made to look like three-dimensional real life objects with all of the attendant nuances of light and color. However, because raster images are formed on matrices which are inherently rectilinear, it is difficult to form images with smooth curved lines and planes using raster graphics. Thus, there is a shortcoming in using raster graphics to form display objects since in real world objects curved lines and surfaces are more prevalent than straight lines.
The present invention provides graphic objects which combine the high resolution advantages of raster graphics objects with the inherent ability of vector graphics to provide images with smooth curved lines and surfaces.